/*
* FLINT PARTICLE SYSTEM
* .....................
* 
* Author: Richard Lord
* Copyright (c) Richard Lord 2008-2011
* http://flintparticles.org
* 
* 
* Licence Agreement
* 
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
* 
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
* 
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
* THE SOFTWARE.
*/

package org.flintparticles.common.particles;

import org.flintparticles.common.particles.Particle;
import org.flintparticles.common.particles.ParticleFactory;

/**
 * The ParticleFactory interface defines the interface for any factory class used by emitters to 
 * create, reuse and dispose of particles. To speed up the particle system, a ParticleFactory will
 * usually maintain a pool of dead particles and reuse them when a new particle is needed, rather 
 * than creating a whole new particle. The default ParticleFactory used by the Emitter is an 
 * instance of the appropriate ParticleCreator class.
 * 
 * @see org.flintparticles.twoD.particles.ParticleCreator2D
 * @see org.flintparticles.threeD.particles.ParticleCreator3D
 */

interface ParticleFactory 
{
	/**
	 * To obtain a new Particle object. If using a pool of particles the particle factory will usually return 
	 * a particle from the pool and only creates a new particle if the pool is empty.
	 * 
	 * @return a Particle object.
	 */
	function createParticle():Particle;
	
	/**
	 * Indicates a particle is no longer required. If using a pool of particles the particle factory will 
	 * return the particle to the pool for reuse later.
	 * 
	 * @param particle The particle to return for reuse.
	 */
	function disposeParticle( particle:Particle ):Void;

	/**
	 * Clear all cached particles from the factory
	 */
	function clearAllParticles():Void;
}
